Welcome! This is written primarily for people with Type 2 Diabetes. Some information covers all types of diabetes. Always keep a positive attitude is my motto.
I am a person with diabetes type 2 and write about my experiences and research. Please discuss medical problems with your doctor. Please do not click on the advertisers that have attached to certain words in this section. They are not authorized and are robbing me by doing so.

August 7, 2016

The Value of SMBG Testing – Part 1

Gretchen Becker's blog of August 1 got
me thinking and now I want to review prior blogs of mine on
self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) to attempt to make the
message of the value of SMBG testing stronger.

In the past several years, many reports
have been published saying that self-testing of blood glucose (BG) by
people with type 2 diabetes is useless, a waste of money, and simply
increases rates of depression. I can understand this because there
is no education of value given to help people use the testing data
and change their way of eating that will help manage diabetes to
lower blood glucose levels to near normal.

What the studies omit is that the
medical professions in all countries are lax in giving patients the
education necessary to understand how to use the blood glucose
readings. They provide very little in guidance to their patients for
proper decision-making when looking at blood glucose readings.

Some of us have been fortunate to
receive some education in what to do with our blood glucose test
results. Others have been able to research online and self-educate
themselves. It is knowing how to adjust diet and exercise to keep
blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible that gives
meaning to testing. The readings are truly of no value unless you
know what to do to bring high readings down and how different foods
affect your blood glucose levels. This also applies to preventing
lows and all extreme highs and lows.

In essence, you need to become your own
science experiment with yourself as your own lab rat or mouse. This
is where the challenge is and where learning how diet and exercise
affect your blood glucose proves, knowledge can be very powerful.
There are many factors like general health, other diseases, mental or
medical conditions can make this even more of a challenge.

Alan Shanley at loraldiabetes
has been writing about the lack of respect and understanding SMBG has
been receiving since at least 2006 and he has not missed much in the
lack of understanding by researchers and the medical community.

When I was diagnosed with type 2
diabetes, I wondered what was ahead. Experiences in my life have been
varied, but in my research on self-monitoring of blood glucose
(SMBG), I experienced something unlike anything else. I did not
realize that whole industries and governments rely on and participate
in funding studies fabricating false and misleading information to
demean and direct fraudulent intent at a group of people with type 2
diabetes on no medications or oral medications.

These
fabricated studies have been reported in
trusted reviews, belying the truth in the way the studies were
assembled and carried out. The editor of leading diabetes community
website Diabetes.co.uk, Benedict Jephcote states: “There are a
number of problems with the way results are presented within the
Cochrane review. For instance, in the UK, there are many people
with type 2 diabetes that are actively interested in self-testing and
significant numbers of these people have to buy test strips from
their own income. Studies which exclude these people cannot
therefore give a fair representation of people with type 2 diabetes
in the UK."

Cracks along the above line are already
showing evidence to prove just that. In addition, in the future,
researchers that are more honest will begin to refute these false
studies. What is astounding is that the US Government has
participated in this cover-up of studies that are done to show
patients with type 2 diabetes do not need to self-monitor their blood
glucose levels. The National Institute of Health leads the way and
the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services follows by cutting
testing supplies for people needing them. By not educating Medicare
and Medicaid patients about the value of self-monitoring of blood
glucose and showing them how and when to test, they can support many
studies proving that people with type 2 diabetes do not need the
testing supplies.

Other writers proclaim that the studies are right and say that the results beyond a year do not hold up. I
can understand this because these study participants are no longer
given the supplies with which to self-monitor blood glucose. Many of
the study participants probably are unable to afford the testing
supplies and therefore without them the results would be expected to
not hold up. That is one reason to have long-term studies of three to
five years.

We have many factors working against us
in the way people are selected for most of the studies and this
discrimination and falsification in studies continues to harm people
with type 2 diabetes. Tomorrow I will include more information about
SMBG.

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About Me

I am enjoying life, despite diabetes type 2. I am retired and enjoying the time I have for writing and photography. I was diagnosed with type 2 on Oct 2003, on oral meds for 4 months and they were doing nothing to really improve my daily readings. By cutting my carbohydrates I received the most improvement, but still not enough. Then I requested insulin, even though I did not like the thought of needles. That brought about the biggest change and A1c's in the lower 6's and upper 5's. Now I am working at maintaining them under 6.0 and hopefully nearer 5.5.